Category Archives: Law (US)

Supreme court hears first major abortion case since Trump appointees joined bench – live

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Remade conservative majority will hear oral arguments in case that could result in grave new restrictions on abortion access – follow live

The session just ended, so we’re just getting some insight into what kinds of questions the justices asked.

Questions focused on whether doctors can sue on behalf of patients.

The focus of a lot of the arguments at #SCOTUS today was on whether doctors can sue on behalf of patients – a question of "standing". Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out overturning precedent on standing would draw into question 8 cases just in abortion law.

Oral arguments just ended at the Supreme Court – Chief Justice John Roberts is going to be the focus of a lot of analysis, as the liberal and conservative wings of the court appear to have already developed strong opinions on the case

Activist, actress and author Busy Phillips, who has been outspoken about the abortion she had when she was 15-year-old, gave an impassioned speech on the importance of protecting the right to abortion at the pro-choice rally in front of the Supreme Court.

“I will never stop talking about my abortion.” - @BusyPhilipps #MyRightMyDecision pic.twitter.com/LGGCW5kkkv

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US supreme court to hear Affordable Care Act appeal that could cast doubt on law

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Lower court’s ruling that individual mandate was unconstitutional to be reviewed after 19 Democratic states appealed the decision

US supreme court to hear third Affordable Care Act challenge

The US supreme court has announced it will hear a case on whether a part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional. A decision is not expected until after the 2020 election.

In December, a federal appeals court ruled that the ACA’s individual mandate, which requires every American to have health insurance, was unconstitutional. The ruling cast doubt upon the rest of the law, which is known colloquially as Obamacare.

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US supreme court blocks lawsuit by family of Mexican boy slain at border

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Ruling marks the second involving cross-border incidents preventing cases by foreign nationals in US federal courts

The US supreme court has thrown out a lower court’s ruling that had let the family of a slain 16-year-old Mexican boy pursue a civil rights lawsuit against a US border patrol agent who shot the teenager from across the border in Arizona.

The justices took the action in light of their ruling last Tuesday in a similar case in which they decided on a 5-4 vote to bar a lawsuit against another border patrol agent for fatally shooting a 15-year-old Mexican boy from across the border in Texas.

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Trump claims he has ‘legal right’ to intervene in criminal cases

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President reasserts his right to tweet on judicial issues following William Barr’s warning the posts ‘make it impossible for me to do my job’

Donald Trump has ignored a plea from his attorney general, William Barr, to not tweet about ongoing legal cases, by using his Twitter account to say he has a “legal right” to do so.

Barr delivered a remarkable public rebuke of the president just hours earlier, saying that Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job” and that he would not be “bullied or influenced” over justice department decisions.

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Harvey Weinstein trial: witness details complex relationship with ex-producer

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Rape trial continued with cross-examination of accuser who suffered a panic attack under questioning on Monday

The dramatic rape trial of Harvey Weinstein continued on Tuesday with the cross-examination of an accuser who suffered a panic attack under questioning the day before.

The 34-year-old witness alleges she was violently raped twice by the film producer in 2013. Her claims form a central pillar of the prosecution’s case.

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Trump impeachment: Republican Senate ‘coverup’ prompts backlash

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Outraged by what they see as a coverup in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, grassroots activists are planning a massive “payback project” designed to punish Republican senators at the ballot box.

Related: By denying witnesses, Republicans made clear even a smoking gun would not be enough

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Airbus to pay record £3bn in fines for ‘endemic’ corruption

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UK court sanctions fines after firm admits using agents across world to bribe officials to land high-value contracts

Airbus, Europe’s largest aerospace multinational, is to pay a record £3bn in penalties after admitting it had paid huge bribes on an “endemic” basis to land contracts in 20 countries.

Anti-corruption investigators hailed the result as the largest ever corporate fine for bribery in the world after judges declared that the corruption was “grave, pervasive and pernicious”.

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Weinstein trial: witness says mogul screamed at her for refusing threesome

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Dawn Dunning describes experience of Weinstein ‘towering over’ her and allegedly demanding she have threesome with assistant

A witness at the Harvey Weinstein rape trial in New York described on Wednesday the moment the movie mogul allegedly screamed at her that she would never make it in the film business, after she refused to have a threesome with him and his assistant.

Dawn Dunning, 40, told the jury at the New York supreme court how she had become very scared about what Weinstein might do to her after she tried to get away from the room. “He was screaming. He was a big guy, and he was towering over me. I was really scared.”

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Sopranos actor re-enacts alleged rape at Weinstein trial: ‘I was trying to fight’

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Annabella Sciorra’s shocking testimony marks first time the Weinstein sex crimes trial directly heard from one of his accusers

In a packed courtroom in the New York supreme court in Manhattan on Thursday, the former Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra held her arms above her head, wrists locked, in a physical re-enactment of the moment she alleged that the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein forcibly pinned her to her bed.

“He took my hands and put them over my head to hold them back,” the actor said, staring straight at the jury. Some 15ft away on the defense table, the defendant looked impassively at her.

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Trump lawyers argue impeachment case is ‘flimsy’ as trial looms

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White House’s brief also claimed process has been a ‘charade’ and Trump did ‘absolutely nothing wrong’ in dealings with Ukraine

Lawyers acting on behalf of Donald Trump on Monday branded the impeachment case against him “flimsy” and a “dangerous perversion of the constitution”, setting the stage for the opening of his long-awaited Senate trial on Tuesday.

As the president prepared to jet off to Davos, where he is set to give a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, the White House submitted its formal trial defence brief, a 110-page document in which it also claimed the impeachment process has been a “charade” and insisted Trump did “absolutely nothing wrong” in his dealings with Ukraine.

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Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr join Trump impeachment legal team

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Dershowitz is known for defending Jeffrey Epstein while Starr led the investigation that culminated in Bill Clinton’s impeachment

The White House has unveiled Donald Trump’s legal team for his Senate impeachment trial, a list of attorneys whose own ageing controversies threaten to overshadow their efforts to defend the president.

As the impeachment process enters a major new phase next week, Trump’s defense team will include Alan Dershowitz, known for defending the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and Kenneth Starr, the dogged prosecutor who led the investigation that culminated in the 1998 impeachment of former president Bill Clinton and lost a university post in 2016 for mishandling sexual assaults on campus.

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Weinstein trial: new chapter in #MeToo movement with high stakes for many

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The trial is likely to be one of the most high-profile judicial events of the century, and will be closely watched by thousands

The rape trial of the fallen movie mogul Harvey Weinstein begins on Monday in a Manhattan courtroom, opening a critical new chapter in the #MeToo movement that seeks justice for victims of alleged sexual assault at the hands of powerful men.

Related: Weinstein set to face his toughest legal challenge yet in New York trial

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Rosanna Arquette set to attend Harvey Weinstein trial

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Actor accuses Weinstein of derailing her career after she ‘resisted his advances’

The actor Rosanna Arquette, one of Harvey Weinstein’s most prominent accusers, says she plans to attend the trial of the disgraced film producer when it starts in New York on Monday.

Arquette will not be giving evidence in the case, but she said she will be there to lend support to the handful of women who have been allowed to give testimony in court of Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct and abuse.

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More than 200 members of Congress urge US supreme court to reconsider Roe v Wade

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Appeal in an amicus brief in a Louisiana case was signed by 205 Republicans and two Democrats

More than two hundred members of Congress have urged the US supreme court to reconsider the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling which legalized abortion nationwide.

The appeal came in an amicus brief in a Louisiana case, and was signed by 205 Republicans and two Democrats, and calls on the high court to revisit the ruling, which affirmed that access to safe abortion is a constitutional right.

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Jeffrey Epstein: woman sues estate alleging encounter when she was 14

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Lawsuit filed in Florida says teen was approached in 2003 when she was ‘a vulnerable child without adequate parental support’

A woman who says she was 14 when she had a sexual encounter with the financier Jeffrey Epstein at his mansion sued his estate in Florida court on Monday for coercion, inflicting emotional distress and battery.

The lawsuit filed in Palm Beach county asks for an undisclosed amount of money. The lawsuit doesn’t give the woman’s name and only refers to her as “JJ Doe”.

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Weinstein accusers’ lawyers could get 10 times more than clients, sources say

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Lead attorney for women could receive 25% of payout in settlement which would end most civil lawsuits

Lawyers representing alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein could get as much as 10 times more than some of the accusers themselves if a controversial settlement deal goes ahead, legal sources have told the Guardian.

Last week it was reported that more than 30 women accusing the disgraced Hollywood mogul of sexual misconduct had reached a tentative settlement deal. If approved in court, the settlement will bring to an end most of the civil lawsuits pending against him.

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Eight sexual assault cases added to Harvey Weinstein investigation

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The disgraced Hollywood mogul has not been charged in the cases, which are being reviewed by Los Angeles prosecutors

Prosecutors in Los Angeles are reviewing eight cases accusing disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, an official said Thursday.

The Los Angeles and Beverly Hills police departments each brought four investigations to prosecutors, according to Ricardo Santiago, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

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The decade that shook America

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2010 to 2020 was a contradictory decade that will confound future historians with a simple question: how did America go from Obama to Trump?

Lin-Manuel Miranda was touring his award-winning musical, In the Heights, to his parents’ homeland of Puerto Rico. Donald Trump was awarding first prize on his reality TV show, The Apprentice, to a corporate lawyer turned mobile cupcake entrepreneur.

The year was 2010 and, in the decade that followed, these two hustlers from New York with fiercely devoted followings would come to represent the two faces of America.

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Donald Trump: supreme court to rule on release of bank, tax and finance records

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  • Congress and prosecutors have sought Trump’s tax returns
  • Court likely to issue a ruling in June during election campaign

The supreme court said on Friday it will hear Donald Trump’s pleas to keep his tax, bank and financial records private, a major tussle between the president and Congress that could also affect the 2020 presidential campaign.

Related: Trump: New York prosecutors subpoena eight years of tax returns

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Weinstein reaches $25m settlement with more than 30 women – report

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If approved, settlement would bring most of the civil lawsuits pending against him to an end

More than 30 women who were allegedly subjected to sexual misconduct by the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein have reportedly reached a $25m settlement which, if approved, would bring to an end most of the civil lawsuits pending against him.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that a tentative deal had been agreed involving Weinstein’s numerous alleged victims in the US, Canada, Britain and Ireland. The proposal is awaiting final approval from the courts and from individuals involved, the newspaper says, but once those last hurdles are cleared payouts would be made by insurance companies handling the bankruptcy of the Weinstein Company.

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